Phantom in Russia
by SpaceNut
Summary: This is a three shot about Zach and Cammie. Zach gets sent on a mission against the COC. He's overwhelmed by enemy agents. Cammie thinks he's dead. Is he? Will he return? Will I learn how to write a good summary? Probably not, but you should read anyways.
1. Mission Gone Wrong

So, this will probably be a two-shot. I'm sorry that the first chapter is so short. The next will be longer. Pinky promise. Anyways, this is about a mission gone wrong and what happens after. I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to give too much away. Reviews are greatly appreciated! It's awesome to know someone's reading. But enough of my rambling, enjoy!

"Turn right around this corner. It should be clear." I spoke into the microphone and watched as red dots maneuvered through the corridors of a Russian C.O.C. base. "Phantom, do you copy?" I spoke Zach's codename, trying not to let my desperation seep into my voice. I failed.

"Relax Chameleon. I copy." He whispered back. I mentally sighed.

"There's a guard coming up the stairs past the first door to your left." I warned. I heard Zach breathing. I figured he didn't want to speak at the chance of being heard. Good, he was still alright. Then I heard metal contact with metal. Something crashed to the ground. Zach groaned through the comms unit. Someone screamed for back-up and gunshots echoed in my ear.

"Zach!" I abandoned his codename. "Zach, do you copy?" I was wailing into the microphone.

He responded with another groan. I heard more metal clash and shrieks rang out. "Zachary! Abort the mission. I repeat, abort!" I heard him grunt and the familiar sounds of struggle and pain filed my ears.

"Get him!" A woman at the base ordered. I felt sick to my stomach.

"Get out Zach! Get out! Don't you dare die on me! I will kill you if you die! Get out!" All the red dots on my screen seemed to zero in on one location in the corner of the map. The corner where Zach was.

"Zachary! They're coming! You need to leave!" More grunts filled my ear. How could this happen? It was supposed to be a simple mission. Get in, plant the bomb, get out. He couldn't die!

"Gallagher Girl," He gasped. Tears pooled into my eyes and the comms unit was cut off by static.

I felt my body shake with the sobs that were soon to come. My Blackthorne Boy, was gone. He was invincible. And now, he was gone.

Disclaimer:

Me: "Zach, could I own you?"

Zach: "No."

Me: "Please!"

Zach: "No."

Me: "Oh come on! Just one day? I'll be nice. I promise. I'll even give you a mustache."

Zach: "Double no."

Me: "Darn. I thought the mustache would win you over for sure."

Well, stay tuned! Haha... Thanks for reading!


	2. Come Back

My phone vibrated against my bedside table, causing me to stir in my sleep. "Mmmph." I dragged a pillow over my head and held it to my ears. The phone buzzed again. "Go away." I spoke into my pillow. The phone stopped. Good, I thought, I allowed my mind to drift back into the terrible nightmares I'd been hosting for days now. Then phone vibrated, _again. _I threw the pillow off me and into the wall. Snatching up the phone, I squinted at the light that radiated from it. I blinked and adjusted so I could read the texts that had popped up. The most recent ones were from Bex.

"Cammie, please get out of your bed! It's been three days and you haven't moved!"

"Don't make me come over there. I know you're just ignoring me. You need to talk to someone about this!"

"That's it, you leave me no choice. I'm coming over. RIGHT NOW. You need help my friend."

I moaned. Why couldn't they just leave me alone? I didn't want to talk to anyone. Talking about it would lead to crying about it. I didn't want to cry anymore. I was trying to keep Zach off my mind. He was gone. I couldn't save him now. It was eating me up inside.

I threw on some grey sweat pants and a pale green tank top. Bex was right though. I hadn't left my bed in three days, except for food and the bathroom. I just wasn't ready to face the world without him. My hair had a severe case of bedhead. I sighed. It looked incurable so I pushed it back into a frizzy bun and put on an elastic headband to hold it down. The face I saw in the mirror looked like a zombie. So what? It's not like I had a Blackthorne Boy to impress. I didn't need to look good. There was no point. I proceeded to brush my teeth and wash my face. I tried to stuff as many used tissues as I could into a waste basket. They were littered across the room, like sprinkles on a cupcake. There was a knock on my apartment door. Before I could even make my way out of the bathroom, I heard Bex picking the lock. Eh, might as well leave her to her business. I continued to try to make my room more presentable. Bex was going to be appalled by what she found. I should try to lighten the load.

"Cammie!" An exasperated British accent called from the kitchen. "We need to talk!"

Okay, so you probably think Bex is being a very insensitive best friend right now. Well, you can't really blame her. You see, after Zach's uhm… 'accident', I took a leave from work. I asked the director not to inform my friends of Zach's mission. I didn't want them to see me like this. He just told everyone I caught a cold. Bex must have detected my lie though, because she was storming through my apartment, right into my room.

"Cammie!" She yelped as she took in my appearance. "What happened?" Her eyes scanned the room. It was a total pig sty. My food wrappers were strewn about the room along with the tissues I hadn't gotten. My bed sheet were tangled up and thrown around in a wild looking manner on my bed. Several of my drawers were pulled open, clothes hanging out over the edges. I could go on, but I don't see why. Let's just say, it was messy in there.

"Zach's mission happened." I squeaked. I hadn't realized how hard it would be to say the words until the moment actually arrived. I fell back onto my bed.

"What?" Bex kneeled in front of me, her dark hair falling over her shoulders.

"He's dead." I broke down turning my face into my pillow. My cries were muffled, but they were obvious. I felt Bex sit next to me on the mattress. She rubbed my back soothingly, but it didn't help much.

"I'm so, so sorry Cammie," I could hear tears coming over her, too. But I peaked and saw that she was holding them in. Ugh, I feel like a wimp.

"It's ok Cam." She said as if reading my mind. "You need to cry. It helps. Just let it go." So I did. I let it go for about an hour before I sat up and was able to reduce my sobs to sniffles.

"Tell you what Cam, I'm gonna go get some donuts and then I'll be right back." She grabbed her purse and headed out the door. "Just hang in there."

I nodded and rubbed my rose with the back off my hand. Donuts were m back off my hand. Donuts were my favorite breakfast food. Bex was a good friend. At least I still had my friends. I sniffled again and reached for another tissue.

There was some clicking coming from down the hallway. I stood cautiously. I had heard Bex close the door behind her. She was already out of the building. I slowly stalked out of my room and eased into the living room. A torn up sneaker peaked through the dark brown curtains hung around the window. A body started to slip through. I grabbed the nearest weapon, a lamp, and walked silently towards the man. His body was half way into the room when I grabbed his wrist and flipped him onto his back. He landed on the ground with a thud and a grunt. I pounced and raised my lamp over my head, ready to attack. Then I gasped.

"Ouch." Two slightly swollen lips mumbled.

"Zach!" I yelled it, not caring about my grouchy neighbors. I collapsed into him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "You were dead." I kissed him quickly. "I'm gonna kill you." Kiss. "Where have you been?" Kiss. "Oh my gosh." Then I just clung to him like I would never let go. I probably wouldn't.

He laughed lightly. But then he moaned from me crushing him under me. (No, I'm not fat! He was just extremely sore. Well, that's what I assumed.) I pulled away and kneeled next to him, leaning over him.

"Zach," I gasped. I examined him for wounds and got more than what I was hoping for. One side of his face was a painful –looking purple tint. A dark circle outlined his left eye. The other side of his face had a scarlet red cut that ran from his cheekbone to his jawline. His shirt was stained red from blood. There were several deep cuts that crisscrossed up and down his legs. His left arm was burned. Several of his fingers were bent in odd angles that signaled they were broken. I felt myself start to cry. He looked so beaten and miserable. He barely looked like Zach.

'Gallagher Girl," He croaked. He sounded so weak. Another wave of pain hit me. I let myself lie down on the ground next to him and cry onto his shoulder. He struggled, but reached out and took my hand in his. He smiled at me weakly, and I realized that barely alive Zach was better than dead Zach.

"Let me clean you wounds." He nodded slightly. I propped him up against my couch and went searching through drawers. I came back with a bottle of alcohol (the medical kind!), a box of bandages, gauze, an icepack, some paper towels, water, and a rag. Zach smiled at me again. I could tell that he didn't have much strength for talking, so I just smiled back at him through my tears.

I started on his face and rubbed the cut with alcohol. He winced but held in any cries of pain that could've escaped. I bandaged that cut carefully and gave him an icepack for the nasty bruise that decorated the other side of his face. I continued on, speaking soothing words to him and try my best to be gentle.

"You're home now. You're safe. That's all that matters. I'll fix you up and you'll be good as new. Don't worry. Everything's alright baby." He just grimaced at the painful parts and smiled when he could at my words. Eventually, I finished. "There." I said as I wiped some dirt away from his forehead.

"Thank you Cammie." He whispered. His beautiful emerald eyes held happiness and I smiled at him again.

Like I would ever give you any less I kissed his forehead gingerly, careful not to put too much pressure on his bruise. "Well, they always say you should kiss it to make it better." I shrugged and kissed his lips slowly. I pulled away and saw Bex standing in the doorway with a Dunkin' Donuts bag in her right hand, Her left hand rested on a cocked hip.

"And to think we finally got rid of you." She glared for a teasing second and then allowed her lips to break into a toothy grin.


	3. The Cat Man

Pros and Cons of Dating Zachary Goode

Pro: He's a spy. Spies are hot. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. Just thought I'd be clear. Again, if you missed it, Zach is hot.

Con: Spies are hot. They aren't just hot to their girlfriends though. They are hot to the mass population of females across the globe. This often leads to feelings of jealousy. (But it's worth him being hot, don't get me wrong.)

Con: Zach almost dies, a LOT. That's never fun. Most girls don't sit at home and wonder if a terrorist is going to blow up their boyfriend. I'm not included in most girls.

Pro: When he comes home in one piece, you get to kiss him. A TON. And you have the excuse of his life being at risk.

Con: He smirks.

Pro: He smirks.

Con: His mother wants to kill you. That's never really a good sign.

Pro: If you ever get married, you have a good reason to hate you mother-in-law.

Zach had been back for a total of twenty-one hours seventeen minutes and forty two seconds. And every moment I'd been at his side, not letting him be more than an arms-length away. Currently, he was sitting in the kitchen with one of his feet propped up on a cushioned stool. Okay, I'll admit, I kinda go mom mode when Zach gets hurt. I handed him a glass of orange juice with a blue bendy straw sticking out over the cup. He moved a shaky handy up to the straw and pressed it between his lips. He had gotten a good night's sleep and was looking better since I'd cleaned him up. His worst wound was the gunshot in his lower abdomen. Yeah, I didn't see it till later. Zach had pointed it out to me saying, "Missed a spot sweetheart." To say the least, I felt extremely guilty for overlooking it. It just hadn't really occurred to me to look under his shirt. I know, I should have just done it anyways. I mean who gives up a free pass to look at spy abs? I must have been a bit mental at the moment. Anyways, Bex help me clean the bullet wound. (It was gross, but I didn't vomit! I was surprised with myself.) He had regained a little strength and was able to talk more, but not much.

"I'm gonna make you some pancakes. Is that okay? Do you want something different?" I turned around to see him smirking at my antics. I was acting like his maid. "Smirk if you must Zach. I do it because I love you."

He laughed slightly and smiled at me. He set his glass down on the table and attempted standing up. He tried leaning one arm on the table and easing his weight onto the less-injured foot. I watched him carefully in case he hurt himself. It wasn't long before he collapsed back into his chair with a deep moan.

"Zach…" I walked quickly to his side. "Please don't push it. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt on my watch. _Again_."

"Cammie," He reached out and brushed at my hair. It was the only thing he'd said since he'd woken besides 'good morning'. I smiled happily at him. He hated being this helpless. It was obvious. He didn't like that he had to depend on someone else for a change.

"Hey. Don't worry. Soon you'll be back to your cocky self and I'll have to suffer your smirk again." I kissed his cheek and pulled a chair next to him. I sat down to see that Zach was frowning at me.

"Suffer? My smirks hot." And then he, of course, smirked.

"You're right." I leaned my head onto his shoulder. "I guess I just missed it so much I started pretending I didn't need it." We both laughed lightly.

"I'm so sorry Cammie. I should have been more careful." Zach's tone changed and I was surprised by the total seriousness of it. This was a very rare moment. I was careful to take it all in.

"Oh please." He wrapped his unburned arm around my shoulders and I snuggled closer to him. "You're Zachary Goode. You're the best of the best."

"You know it babe." Okay, I messed up. I fed his ego and the moment left. Darn.

I leaned up and kissed his lips gently. They were still slightly swollen. He smiled against the kiss and it was like the room melted away. I wrapped a hand around his neck and it felt so right to have him there with me. Alive, thank goodness. Eventually, we pulled away and I stood up from my seat.

"Pancakes it is." I smiled at him and started to walk to the pantry.

"Cam wait." Zach grabbed my hand before I was out of reach.

"What is it?"

"Could you help me up?" He asked and I saw the sadness in his eyes that he needed me just to stand.

"Sure." I draped one of his arms over my shoulder and he rested some of his wait on me. Soon, he was on his feet.

"Thanks Gallagher Girl." He kissed my cheek and I walked to the pantry again.

I searched through cereal boxes and bags of flour until I found the half-empty box of pancake mix. I hummed and set it by the stove. Then I heard Zach coughing behind me.

"You okay Zach?" I looked at him over my shoulder. He was leaning against the table and I could tell he was struggling to hold up his weight. "Hey babe, maybe you should just rest. Your body is probably still exhausted." I tried to lead him back to my bedroom where he slept last night (Don't worry I crashed on the couch.), but he refused.

"Hold on Cam. I'll lie down later." He pulled his hand out of mine.

"Zach…" I warned him, but he refused me.

"Cam I need to tell you something."

"Oh," Was my murmured response. I sunk into the chair I had just left. What in the world would he need to tell me?

"Okay. Here it goes." He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. He was nervous! I almost laughed because, well, my Zach doesn't get nervous. But then I saw the dead serious look in his eyes and I dropped all my humorous thoughts. "So Cammie, I love you. And I hope you how much I love you. Because I don't think you do. I want you to know that you are the thing I love most in this universe. I love you more than myself. And it's… strange… to me, because I've never really felt like this with anyone. But with you, things are different. I don't know how long I'll live in this world. I can't promise a normal life, but I can promise you something." His expression was hard to comprehend. It was like he was confused of himself and yet sure of something. He tried to conceal a moan as he carefully bent down to the ground. He face was twisted with pain, but he tried to cover it up anyways. What is going on? I'm a spy. I'm supposed to notice things and comprehend situations! Why doesn't my head comprehend this? He dug into his pocket and spoke as his fingers latched onto something. "I can promise you that I'll love you forever." His hand slowly pulled out of his pocket and he held a small black box in his palm. He pulled up the lid to unveil a diamond ring that caught the colors in the room and sparkled. "Gallagher Girl, will you," He stop for a second to put emphasis on the word, "_please _marry me." His looked so hopeful and fragile. I was taking in how perfect he looked when it dawned on me. He just asked me to be his _bride_. He wanted to be my _husband_. He wanted to get _MARRIED!_

"Cammie, I hate to rush you but I'm seriously in a lot of pain right now. I guess I thought you might answer quicker." His hopeful look had slipped away and pain and regret had replaced it. I just stared at him in shock because even my spy instincts couldn't believe it. "Okay, well I'm just gonna go back to Russia and die now." He closed the box and tried to slowly stand up. He failed.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Generally, the guy leaves after he gets shot down. At least that's what I thought. This has never really happened to me before." He admitted and I just stared at him with an 'are you serious?' look on my face.

"Yea, so I'll be leaving now." He tried to stand again and with a long painful groan, he succeeded.

"You can't just leave!" I squeaked. What was he doing? He was supposed to be kissing me right now out of pure joy and excitement.

"Cammie, do you understand how this works?" He face looked honestly confused like I wasn't making sense. "You say yes, I swing you around in circles and we live happily ever after. You say no, I leave and loose hope of ever obtaining happiness again. Then I die a wrinkly old grouchy man with a whole bunch of cats." He struggled to walk and sighed. "I guess I'll go buy my first cat."

"Zach! Forget the dumb cat! Swing me around in circles so we can live happily ever after like Cinderella and Snow White and all those pansies!"

"What? You didn't say yes Cam." He looked at me and for a second I saw honest to goodness hurt flash through his eyes.

"Of course I did! Don't be ridiculous Zach! There's no way on earth I'd said no!"

"What?"

Then I realized he was right. And I felt pretty horrible. And I seriously wanted to slap myself. And I thankfully refrained. And I ran up to him and buried my head into his chest shouting, "YES! YES! YES!"

It took Zach a second to register my insanity, but once he did he wrapped his arm around my waist. He spun me around just like he promised shouting, "Thank God! I hate cats!"

I laughed and nuzzled deeper into him. "Good, I'm allergic."

**Yay! That's the end! I hope I entertained you! Please review! I love hearing from you guys. It makes my day. (I know that sounds kind of pathetic...) Anyways, thanks so much for reading! I hope it was worth your while! Message me if you have any questions, comments, or prompts. I'd love to hear from you! God Bless.**

**As Always ~SpaceNut~**

**Disclaimer: It's late and I'm too exhausted to come up with some cool witty remark. Forgive me fo rthe lame and unoriginal senteces that follow:**

**I do not own Gallagher Girls. All rights belong to Ally Carter.**


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